Streamline walked to his weapons on the ground to pick them up. It was going to be another long day, he thought. But as he collected his equipment, Azul, with his torn garment flowing in the wind, approached him and reached down, picking up Streamline's Omega Blaster.

"Hey!" Streamline blurted out, cautious and protective of the weapon.

Azul handed him the gun and stared into Streamline's mask. "Please, you've got to do something. It's horrible . . . Vecto's killing them off . . . he's on a massacre!"

Streamline snatched the weapon and returned the gaze. "What do you mean?"

"I can sense it-the SS6 trainees. They're dying. They weren't even prepared."

Streamline lowered his head, realizing that Crysilis' premonition was coming true. "So they weren't told. Then where's Morphaal and Sable? Are they there?"

"I can't sense them. I think it was a false lead to occupy Vecto."

So the SS6 trainees were just innocent pawns in Sable's grand scheme, he thought. But why would Sable sacrifice his men? And what was his motive for reviving Morphaal? He had a theory: Acaterra had been at peace for years, and he had heard rumors that the government wanted to shut down the SS6 program. Sable had become insignificant and lost the power he held over the government. He needed a villain to make him a hero, so he revived Morphaal-but not to make Morphaal the villain. Morphaal wanted the A.S. dead, and there was only one way to destroy the A.S.: make them the bad guys.

Sable knew Morphaal would agree to this and knew that Vecto would fall for the trap out of revenge. What better way to do that than to turn Vecto into a killer and have Sable take the credit for his destruction. A bonus was turning Streamline into a bank robber. Did they hire that teenage thief to steal his Omega Blaster, knowing that he'd chase after him? Either way, they twisted the news, turning the public against them.

In the end, Morphaal would get planet Zendora to control while Sable would get Acaterra. If his theory was correct, the SS6 soldiers were the good guys, after all, and Vecto was massacring them.

Streamline looked at the bodies lying around, having sympathy for the dead men. He couldn't wait on Crysilis and Azmeck to solve things. If they weren't going to stop Vecto by force, then perhaps he should . . .

* * *

Vecto walked down a path, destroying male and female barracks, killing off soldiers in hiding. He eliminated the hospital with large missiles, detonated bombs in the fire department, then took out nearby structures. He made havoc of the base but noticed a mech standing on the roof of a building in the distance. It was staring at him, obviously scanning him. Vecto stopped in the middle of a flaming park, waiting for the machine's move. As if in response, the mech leaped. Vecto watched as it arched a mile in the air, headed directly for him. It soared in the way of the sun, its briefly silhouetted image coming straight down. Vecto looked up, unbudging, as its feet crashed before him, the weight of the machine alone causing an earthquake to ripple by, shaking the water fountain behind Vecto.

Without haste, it kicked Vecto, sending him and his weapons crashing into the fountain.

"You will not destroy this compound!" a voice echoed from the mech as it stared down at Vecto. "Allow me to introduce Prometheus, prototype mech to the Gemini fighters. A superb fighting machine enhanced by Dr. Azmeck himself."

"Dr. Azmeck?" Vecto asked, standing up from the fountain as water rolled down his shield and evaporated. "So that old man has a taste for war, after all. Just like his brother Sable."

"In honor of Sable, I will be your opponent," the pilot, Brail, said, moving the machine's fist in the air with his controls.

"I'd rather face your leader than a deranged machine!" Vecto replied. He swiftly reached behind him and yanked the fountain tower from the small pool and threw it at the mech.